Convict

Francis  MacNamara

 'Frank the Poet '

T

Francis MacNamara, known as Frank the Poet, was assigned to the Australian Agricultural Company as a shepherd at the Company's holdings in the vicinity of the Peel River. When the Company assigned him to work in the coal mines of Newcastle he objected. He wrote the poem 'A petition from the Australian Agricultural Company's Flocks at Peel's River on Behalf of the Irish Bard' and 'For the Company Under Ground', which voiced his antipathy toward working in the mines.

After being sent to an iron gang further south near Braidwood, he embarked on the life of a bushranger when he joined with several other absconders to form a formidable band of outlaws whose members included ; John Jones, per Lady Macnaughton; Edward Allen, per Asia; William Thomson, per Asia and William Eastwood, per Patriot . In 1842, they were convicted of being illegally at large with fire-arms and sentenced to transportation for life to a penal settlement   -  Van Diemen's Land

 

For the Company Under Ground

When Christ from heaven comes down straightaway

All his Father's laws to expound

MacNamara shall work that day

For the Company under ground

 

When the man in the moon to Moreton Bay

Is sent in shackles bound

MacNamara shall work that day

for the company under ground

 

When the Cape of good Hope to Twofold Bay

Comes for the change of a pound

 MacNamara shall work that day

For the company under ground

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When cows in lieu of milk yield tea

And all lost treasures are found

MacNamara shall work that day

For the company under ground

 

When the Australian Company's heaviest dray

Is drawn 80 miles by a hound

MacNamara shall work that day

For the Company under ground

 

When a frog, a caterpillar and a flea

Shall travel the globe all round

MacNamara shall work that day

For the company under ground

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When turkey cocks on Jews harps play

And mountains dance at the sound

MacNamara shall work that day

For the Company under ground

 

When Christmas falls on the 1st May

And O'Connell's King of England crown'd

MacNamara shall work that day

For the Company under ground.

 

When thieves ever robbing on the highway

For their sanctity are renowned

MacNamara shall work that day

For the Company under ground

Nor over ground

 

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Moreton Bay

Attributed to Francis McNamara

(Frank the Poet)

One Sunday morning as I went walking
By Brisbane waters I chanced to stray
I heard a convict his fate bewailing
As on the sunny river bank I lay
I am a native from Erin's island
But banished now from my native shore
They stole me from my aged parents
And from the maiden I do adore

I've been a prisoner at Port Macquarie
At Norfolk Island and Emu Plains
At Castle Hill and at cursed Toongabbie
At all these settlements I've been in chains
But of all places of condemnation
And penal stations in New South Wales
To Moreton Bay I have found no equal
Excessive tyranny each day prevails

For three long years I was beastly treated
And heavy irons on my legs I wore
My back from flogging was lacerated
And oft times painted with my crimson gore
And many a man from downright starvation
Lies mouldering now underneath the clay
And Captain Logan he had us mangled
All at the triangles of Moreton Bay

Like the Egyptians and ancient Hebrews
We were oppressed under Logan's yoke
Till a native black lying there in ambush
Did deal this tyrant his mortal stroke
My fellow prisoners be exhilarated
That all such monsters such a death may find
And when from bondage we are liberated
Our former sufferings will fade from mind

Moreton Bay on YouTube